Memorandum by the Friends of Northern
Uganda
The Friends of Northern Uganda (FONU) was established
in 2004 by a group of concerned Acholi and British friends who
were appalled by the ongoing rebellion in northern Uganda and
the bloodshed and violence being perpetrated there, especially
against women and children.
FONU SEEKS
(a) To promote reconciliation as the basis
of a permanent settlement of the crisis.
(b) To offer bursary support to young returnees
from the Lord's Resistance Army and to children in the atrociously
inadequate Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camps for either
skills training or secondary school education through the programme
of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI).
(c) To support other projects and initiatives
being run by local community and other groups.
(d) To create links and to encourage other
Non-Governmental Organizations to seek ways of helping people
in the war-affected areas.
(e) To lobby the United Nations and concerned
Governments to play a more active and balanced role in the search
for reconciliation and peace.
(f) To encourage the British media to give
an higher profile to the crisis.
Turning to the issues of especial concern to
the Committee, as laid out in its press release of Wednesday 4
June.
What the impact has been of the International
Criminal Court warrants on the prospects for peace
We are of the view that a major error was made
by the ICC Chief Prosecutor when he accepted the invitation of
the Government of Uganda to investigate the allegations that the
leadership of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) were guilty of
war crimes and crimes against humanity. By looking only at the
behaviour of the Lord's Resistance Army and not also that of elements
of the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) stationed in the
war zone, many Acholi and other civilians, who knew that there
were a continuing number of grave abuses being perpetrated by
Ugandan soldiers, including rape, theft at gunpoint, physical
violence et al, were very fearful that the Ugandan army had been
given impunity. That is not in the least to say that the Lord's
Resistance Army has not perpetrated the gravest of crimes; it
is to say that justice has been seen by many victims as partial
and thus less than satisfactory.
When speaking in Geneva last year to a staff
member of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), who had, earlier that day, discussed northern
Uganda with a member of the ICC investigation team, FONU's Malcolm
Harper was told that the ICC investigator had admitted that the
evidence showed that, almost certainly, there was more frequent
abuse by the Ugandan military than by members of the LRA.
This situation has made it harder for many victims
of the rebellion to understand the even-handedness which they
had earlier attributed to the ICC and it has, in our view, made
it more difficult for the leadership of the LRA to participate
in the Juba peace talks, albeit through intermediaries, due to
the indictments hanging over their heads.
Additionally, the amnesty offered periodically
to the LRA, including the leadership, would appear to be in conflict
with the ICC indictments. The LRA leaders fear that, if they present
themselves at the talks, the indictments will hold sway over the
amnesty and they will be arrested.
There is much speculation that President Museveni
would really like to see the indictments either withdrawn or suspended
for the duration of the peace talks. We cannot say whether this
is so but it may be that the Government of Uganda should criminal
proceedings against those indicted in order to be able to request
the UN Security Council to suspend the arrest warrants either
permanently or for an initial six or twelve month period pending
the outcome of the talks.
One problem with an approach to the Security
Council could be the determination of Governments like the British,
which are members of the Council and which worked hard to get
the ICC established, not to allow the Court's first-ever case
not to come to fruition. We fear lest such an attitude may end
up hampering the prospects for a negotiated peaceful settlement
of the crisis.
Whether there is a tension between the need for
peace and the requirement for justice: (And, if so, how best this
can be addressed)
There appears to be a real tension between the
need for peace and the requirement for justice.
Opinions vary—sometimes quite markedly—between
those who say that they want peace to be achieved after 21 years
of violence, disruption and uncertainty as quickly as possible
and those who say that the LRA leaders should be arrested and
put on trial. This is bound to be the case. The Acholi Religious
Leaders Peace Initiative believe that the traditional Acholi (and
others') methods of seeking admission of wrongdoing, apology,
forgiveness, reconciliation and reintegration into the community
should form the basis of the way ahead. Here again, opinions vary
considerably on how many people share the ARLPI view. FONU's evidence
is that it is widespread but not universal.
Malcolm Harper, on a visit to Gulu in January,
2006 met Brigadier Sam Kolo, previously No 3 in the LRA hierarchy,
who had defected to the Government side and who had, apparently,
been through the traditional Mato Oput cleansing ceremony and
was running a programme seeking educational bursaries. When they
met at the Acholi Inn Hotel, Mr Kolo appeared to have no bodyguard
and did not look at all apprehensive at being in a public place.
He also met Brigadier Kenneth Banya (another
former LRA Commander) in Gulu who showed no such apprehension
either.
What appears to be very sad is the lack of understanding
in wide areas of the international community towards national/local
traditions and a reliance on the more punitive approach of the
ICC process. FONU believes that national and local mechanisms
should be given priority (comparable with the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of South Africa where terrible and heinous crimes against
humanity had been committed). If this was to happen, the relationship
between the need for peace and the requirement of (redemptive
rather than punitive) justice would almost certainly be enhanced—even
if the international (and, especially, the western) mind found
it hard to understand this.
How International Criminal Court and national
processes, including traditional forms of justice, can combine
to combat impunity and foster justice and reconciliation
If this process was entered into at the national
level, it could then be fed into the ICC and decisions be sought
on any subsequent role of the ICC. FONU accepts that the incorporation
of traditional justice methods into national law is complicated
but not impossible. We would urge the international community
to encourage such a process in Uganda, initially looking at the
local mechanisms available in northern Uganda and, subsequently,
in other areas of the country.
FONU believes that, when it was established,
the ICC was seen as a court of last resort. In Uganda, it would
seem that the last resort has not yet been reached and that the
referral of the crisis to the Court was premature.
How best grievances, against the Lord's Resistance
Army and the Government of Uganda, can be addressed
If the ICC process has been allowed to remain
one-sided in its investigation, it would appear that it has limited
its role in terms of addressing grievances against the Government
of Uganda. Many people question how far the Government of Uganda
would tolerate an investigation into UPDF behaviour.
There have been reports by Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch which have highlighted Ugandan army abuses
and which could form the basis of a wider review of this issue.
The United Nations Human Rights Council could seek to investigate
allegations, both updating those against the LRA and looking at
the UPDF.
FONU has a number of lurking fears that a number
of Governments, which have seen aspects of the African Renaissance
being led from Kampala may have been rather too willing to turn
a blind eye to some of the other things which have been happening—and
which are carrying on to this day—in the country. The time
for a more balanced and honest approach seems to be overdue.
As already stated, if traditional methods of
justice and reconciliation could be accepted and utilized, grievances
against both the Government and the LRA could be addressed and,
hopefully, resolved.
How the international community can help to create
the conditions for sustainable peace and re-development in the
north
The international community has an enormously
important role to play in helping to create the conditions for
sustainable peace. We have outlined above some of the actions
which need to be taken, often in co-operation with the Government
of Uganda. Additionally, people need to be willing to "sup
with the devil", as Vice-President Riek Machar of the Government
of South Sudan, President Joachim Chissano of Moçambique
(the United Nations Special Representative) and those representatives
of a number of African Governments are doing.
Difficult as it may be, the LRA has to be seen
as a genuine partner in the negotiations and the whole Juba process
and must be encouraged to act responsibly in them. President Museveni,
quite frankly, has a credibility gap, both within and outside
Uganda, with a large number of people who have yet to be convinced
that he genuinely wants the peace process to succeed and is not,
in reality, more interested in keeping the Acholi and other peoples
of the north politically emasculated as his foes.
Much work needs to be done now to start to plan
for the longer-term future of northern Uganda, both during and
after the peace process. There is a wide range of reconstruction
which will be needed, including the effective implementation of
the UN Millennium Development Goals as people are enabled to come
out of the wretched IDP camps and the rebuilding of wide areas
of the infrastructure of effective local governance.
The international community should be encouraging
the Government of Uganda, the World Bank, UN Agencies, Programmes
and Funds, Non-Governmental Organizations (both international,
national and local), community based groups, including women and
young people to sit down together in order to devise a 5-10 year
plan and to respond generously to the appeal which would follow.
If such planning was undertaken comprehensively
now, it would also be a massive encouragement for the victims
of the conflict to know that plans were being made and that they
were being consulted as to what the priorities should be and how
their local communities would be involved in their achievement.
CONCLUSION
FONU would be more than happy to come and give
oral evidence to the Committee. The crisis in northern Uganda
is long overdue for a permanent settlement. Until recently it
was, as Jan Egeland, the former UN Under-Secretary-General for
the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said, the world's longest
running and most ignored and forgotten conflict. Now it is getting
an higher profile and FONU welcomes that development greatly.
Malcolm Harper
15 June 2007
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